Many years ago these buildings were used for defense against enemies, they were residence of the monarch or a haven for those who retired from worldly life. Now these majestic and beautiful buildings delight the eye of tourists around the world.

November 26, 2012

Gravensteen Castle (Dutch:
Gravensteen, literally: "castle of the count") is a medieval castle in Ghent,
Belgium. It is the only medieval castle in Flanders, defensive system of which
has remained virtually untouched to this day.

The present castle was built in 1180 by Count
Philip of Alsace (wasCount of Flandersfrom 1168 to
1191). The counts of Flanders had built castles in the
principal cities of the county. Because they had to maintain law and order,
they continuously had to move from one city to the other. Therefore, they
disposed of a castle in most cities where they wanted to stay for a few months.
The castle of Ghent is the only one which survived the centuries more or less
intact.

November 16, 2012

Bran Castle
(Romanian: Castelul Bran; German: Törzburg; Hungarian: Törcsvár), also known as Dracula’s Castle (although
it is one among several locations linked to the Dracula legend, including
Poenari Castle and Hunyad Castle), is a
national monument and landmark in Romania. The castle is situated near Bran and
in the immediate vicinity of Braşov on the border between Transylvania and
Wallachia.

November 12, 2012

The Château de Sarzay is a 14th century castle
in the village of Sarzay in the Indre département of France. Château de Sarzay
is one of the chateaus of the southern Loire Valley, which although close to a
tributary of the Indre, but already adjacent to the foothills of the Massif
Central. Like many buildings of this type in the Auvergne and Limousin, Sarzay
had a rectangular form, flanked by 25-meter cylindrical high towers. The
château was protected by two outer walls, and 38 towers. In the first period
there was also a moat with three drawbridges and a 4-acre pond.

The castle was built between 1200 and 1225
after the Viking incursions in the early Middle Ages.It was originally called the Antwerp Burcht
(citadel). At that time, it was the first large stone building in Antwerp. Unfortunately,
the building, preserved to this day, is only a small part of the old fortress.
The old fortress covered an area in several times larger. Inside that castle
were important institutions such as the Vierschaar (the former courthouse), St.
Walburgis Church, the Fish Market, warehousing and storage facilities and a
number of other buildings. The entire complex was surrounded by a massive
defensive wall. The fortress made it possible to control the access to the
Scheldt River and to guard the entrance to the city from the direction of the
Western Scheldt.

November 5, 2012

Löwenburg
(German: Löwenburg, literally: "Lion Castle") is one of the most
beautiful castles in the world. The castle is located in the German town of
Kassel, in the Wilhelmshöhe Mountain Park, on the Bavaria mountain, altitude 92
meters above sea level.

From a distance it appears to the visitor as a
romantic Gothic castle from the Middle Ages.However, it was built between 1793 and 1801 at the time when the era of
construction of the formidable and fortified castles in Germany was ended a few
centuries ago. William IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, inspired by the medieval
romance, commissioned the architect Heinrich Christoph Jussow build the castle,
which can be compared with the English medieval palaces.

November 1, 2012

Kalmar Castle (Swedish: Kalmar slott) is one of
the most significant creations of Northern European fortification art of the
Renaissance. The castle is located in the small town of Kalmar in the province
Småland on the southern coast of Sweden.

The area around Kalmar has been inhabited since
ancient times. At the diggings have been found traces of ancient burials of the
stone age. However, the first mentions of this place belong to the 11th
century. According to a medieval folk tale, the Norwegian patron Saint Olav had
moved his ships to Kalmar strait. There are very few written sources of this
event, but archaeologists found a stone, in which there is mention of this
strait.